Germany Starts Enforcing Hate Speech Law (bbc.com)

Germany is set to start enforcing a law that demands social media sites move quickly to remove hate speech, fake news and illegal material. From a report: Sites that do not remove "obviously illegal" posts could face fines of up to 50m euro ($60m). The law gives the networks 24 hours to act after they have been told about law-breaking material. Social networks and media sites with more than two million members will fall under the law's provisions. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be the law's main focus but it is also likely to be applied to Reddit, Tumblr and Russian social network VK. Other sites such as Vimeo and Flickr could also be caught up in its provisions.

Comments

Shouldn't they, of all countries, know better?

[muecksteiner]

You know, what with their long and illustrious history of totalitarianism and censorship. Which always worked out so perfectly, right?

I guess the correct reply to this whole censorship thing would be "Jawohl, mein Führer!" (spoken to their "Minister of Justice" who came up with this insanity). And I wish this was funny, instead of tragic.

Re:Shouldn't they, of all countries, know better?

[Anonymous Coward]

The "hate speech" laws are designed to crack down on "extremists" but of course they'll be used to crack down on "dissenting opinion" soon enough as the concept of hate speech is ill-defined and open to interpretation.

Re:Shouldn't they, of all countries, know better?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's all good and well when you agree with what constitutes evil, but if you had asked anyone in the German government in the 1930's what evil needed prevention I bet it wouldn't have been people saying mean things about Jews. Now you've created a legal instrument to suppress speech the government decides is "bad." What happens when what the government decides is "bad" isn't what you think is "bad"? They have a legal tool to stop you from saying "hateful" things, like that the Aryan race isn't the master race.

Why are pro-authoritarians always such morons?

Re:Shouldn't they, of all countries, know better?

[ScentCone]

corporations had no problem doing business with Hitler

Because, in most cases, they saw things exactly as the British prime minister did. How bad could this guy REALLY be, after all? Or, they were businesses that literally had no choice because if they didn't play ball they were destroyed, and the company's assets and reigns handed to someone else. But for companies outside of Germany, don't underestimate the Chamberlain effect. Or the sort of blithe dismissal of Nazi evilness exhibited by Democrats like FDR until it was much too late.

It's an admission ...

[CaptainDork]

... that social media is not your father's "me too," AOL.

The problem is not that there's hate speech on social media.

The problem is that people on social media validate the activity by objecting.

When governments regulate social media, social media becomes a branch of the government.

It's not. Leave it alone and don't feed the trolls.

MARXISM

[Anonymous Coward]

...is always about Mind Control. They know that their ideology is so faulty it cannot stand the test of free speech. So they ALWAYS try to control the flow of information.

Marxism, Mohammedism, SPARTA - all the same idealist, brutish, deadly stuff.

Re:Meh

[elrous0]

Americans killed by anti-fascists: 0

Bullshit. There have been a significant number of cops killed in ambush style killings this year alone, increasingly often by people who've bought into the "anti-fascist"/anti-cop rhetoric of the left. And additionally, racially-motivated killings happen all the time against whites as well, you just will never hear them identified as such by the media because when it's a white victim, it's *never* treated as a hate crime by the media or government (even if the perpetrators are screaming racial epithets as they attack the person).

Re:Always the left pushing "hate speech" laws.

[Dare nMc]

> The political right pushes for free speech and free expression for all.

I guess you don't count Trump as political right. His plan to tax and punish coaches who don't shut-up players who wouldn't stand for the anthem, and using his official communication channel of his office to call for firing of those who speak against him. The same guy who want to shutdown news media that has opposed him, because fake news is in no way based on truth, but that he doesn't think anything opposing him is not news, no mater how much truth it is based on. That the right isn't doing much to oppose any of this, shows how little the care for the constitution of the US.

I am not thinking the left is all good, but they are not anything to the extreme that the right is in the US at the moment.

Re:Always the left pushing "hate speech" laws.

[Dare nMc]

Why we don't teach civics to people like you is atrocious, clearly it is needed. The president swore to uphold the constitution, and to hold the rule of law above that of his own personal rights. The constitution is setup to give power to the people, to protect us from those with the power of the government. That is what McCain's post spells out so well.

Trump is the same as the likes of the leaders of Iraq, Congo, North Korea, Saudi Arabia when he uses his voice as president to attack individuals in order to suppress the political speech of regular citizens. That he also threatened to use his power of presidency really pushes it over the top, and put all of us in jeopardy to be a victim of lawsuits by the people he spoke out against. That so many conservatives now fail to understand the difference between a individuals right, and separate out that any government official that uses the power of their office we gave them, to then violate the constitution ( only to protect his own ego) should be removed from office.